September Long Weekend Duo Gig At Winnipeg Airport.

If you remember from last month I did 3 solo guitar gigs at the Winnipeg airport. This month, I started with a duo gig at the same place. On the Monday of the Labour Day Long Weekend me and Larry Bjornson got together and played a bunch of tunes. He has a great repository of tune knowledge due to his overall experience playing as well as his current situation, playing in the air command bands. The ‘Army Band’ has many facets. From big band to jazz combos to parades music to classical to pop and rock.
When Larry and I get together, we play jazz tunes of course. We also jam out instrumental versions of other kinds of music. On this occasion we played some jazz standards, some country, some Latin, some requests, some Johnny Cash, some Bill Withers, some Lynyrd Skynyrd, you name it.

So how does that work? How can two guys show up at a location and, without out any sheet music or rehearsal, just start playing music together.

Well that is the magic of music and, more specifically, the magic of jazz musicians. We come up with on the spot arrangements of tunes based on ‘lead sheet’ or by the ear ‘lifting’ of music. Many times we know the same tunes and in other situations, particularly simpler pop or country tunes, we wing it bases on memory.

This may seem scary or risky to other musicians (let alone other people) but this is the kind of fun professional jazz musicians love.